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Odyssey has arrived, and with State Championships approaching, everyone is wondering what Type 2 decks will be available once November 1 rolls around. Some deck types are obvious, and decks such as Blue/Green Opposition

and R/G Beatdown almost build themselves. However, there are plenty of interesting cards available for the new Type 2, which leaves plenty of room for exploration with a variety of deck types. A deck that is surprisingly good, and may not have found its way into your playtest circle yet, is The Reyanimator.

should come next, and will probably be put into play by Reya’s ability. Once Reya and Braids are in play, use the combined abilities of those two legends to reuse and abuse the comes-into-play abilities of the other creatures in your deck, while Braids wears away on your opponent’s permanents. Just to make sure it’s clear how this works, here’s an example: Reya and Braids are in play, a Staunch Defender is in your graveyard, and you’re in need of a few extra life points. During your upkeep, put the Braids sacrifice ability on the stack, and put Reya’s ability, targeting the Staunch Defender, above it on the stack. Resolve Reya’s ability, bringing the Defender into play and gaining four life from the Defender’s ability, and then resolve Braids’s ability, placing the Defender back into the graveyard, where it can be used for four more life during your next upkeep. Note that you can’t reuse the abilities of creatures that are already in play, as Reya must have a target in the graveyard when her ability is put on the stack. To use the comes-into-play ability of a creature in play, you’ll have to sacrifice it to Braids on one turn, and bring it out with Reya during your next upkeep. Don’t forget that this deck does sport plenty of reanimation spells if you just can’t wait that extra turn.

are your best friends versus the aggressive decks, and is also one of your best blockers when you don’t want to risk your Reya by involving her in combat. Keep in mind that this deck practically starts at 10 life, as you generally use Death to reanimate the Reya, and you’ll usually tap a pain land along the route to getting her in play. You’d think that would make mono-red beatdown a bad matchup for this deck, but thanks to the Staunch Defenders

recursion will win games versus beatdown, but playing against control decks requires you to keep your Reya in play, rather than destroying opposing threats. Versus control decks, careful use of the Daring Apprentice

in particular is very nasty, as it will not put the Reya into your graveyard for convenient reanimation. Practice your control matchups as much as possible to learn which control decks frequently play which problem cards, and which of your solution creatures works best to combat those problems.

is very useful in this deck. It helps to assemble the combo by drawing extra cards and dumping Reya into the graveyard. Then, once the combo is in place, the Merchant remains available for frequent Reya reanimation, allowing you to dig through your library in search of a key creature or tutor spell or to discard a key creature from your hand to make it available for Reya reanimation.

, you’ll generally find that you don’t miss any more land drops than your average Type 2 deck that plays with 24-25 lands. Also, many games are won by casting spells that only cost one or two mana, and the land count is certainly sufficient for that. The non-basic land count is quite high for a deck that is practically only two colors, but the ability to cast Meddling Mage

as a tutor, and the pain lands tend not to hurt this deck in general. Lands that come into play tapped can be a much bigger hindrance, as this deck often needs to assemble the combo as quickly as possible, which is why there are only 2 Salt Marsh

When playing this deck, it is important to remember that it is a combo deck, so use the mulligan aggressively. The mulligan rule is like an extra tutor for this style of deck, and you won’t be happy with the deck’s performance unless you use it. You don’t necessarily need all of the combo pieces in your opening hand every time, but you should practice enough with the deck so that you can get a feel for which opening hands tend to produce an early Reya, and which hands sputter and die. It is also important to play very carefully – this isn’t a combo that will win by itself. In general you should aggressively pursue obtaining the combo, but once it is in play, you should play very conservatively most of the time. You will often be at low life until you’ve had time to get Staunch Defenders

. Also, be careful of combat tricks when considering whether to block with Reya, as without her your deck stands little chance of winning. Keep in mind what cards your opponent may be playing that can eliminate Reya from play, and protect her with your Meddling Mage

If played carefully, this deck has many favorable matchups amongst the auto-built decks of the format. So far, it has won the majority of its matches versus Red Beatdown, Red Ponza, Green/Blue Opposition

, and Blue/White/Black Control. It has split matches with Red/Green Beatdown based on the deck list, and has lost the majority of games versus Red/White/Blue control, which packs a lot of answers for the deck. Many matchups still require testing, and tinkering with the deck and developing the sideboard continues.

I hope you enjoy the Reyanimator deck. If you play it or anything similar, I’d love to hear how it does for you, and any comments you have. I can always be reached at crazy_monkey1@msn.com.

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